Debbie from Dive Odyssea suggested I should try a diving-session myself before their forthcoming dive on the 26 January.

I headed to Rochford with designer Fraser Muggeridge. Dennis (see Christmas Eve entry) was our instructor. He gave us a theory lesson in the classroom before proceeding to the pool where Fraser and I took to the water pretty quickly. Within minutes of getting in we were trying to have underwater conversations with Dennis. These were limited as we only knew three dive signs: up/down and OK. I can use (very) basic BSL, but dive signs are slightly different, making things even more confusing.

We played lots of games including Frisbee, egg and spoon and some sort of underwater ice-hockey game that involved pushing a puck across the bottom of the pool with a car window-cleaning gadget. If you haven’t played SCUBA games before – everything happens in SLOW MOTION. YEAHHHHH. . .

We did headstands, rolls and an exercise in which we filled and emptied the air in our jackets and floated mid-water (an underwater/zero-G experience.) I found it difficult to keep my balance and was far less graceful than Fraser. Another discovery was that you can actually LAUGH underwater!

I’ve decided to do an open water course with Debbie and her gang after A Secret Sculpture has been completed.

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